Our 13th annual healthcare research shows that using a health and wellbeing strategy to get sick staff back to work as soon as possible is now an increasing priority for employers. This seems to align with the government’s plan to review the sickness absence system and cut the cost of ill-health to the economy. It also intends to explore how the system can be changed to help people stay at work.

Given that long-term sickness absence can also be costly for organisations, it is perhaps not surprising that many employers are focused on finding ways to combat the issue. This year, 47% of respondents say getting people back to work is a key objective for their healthcare benefits provision, which is a significant rise on the 24% that said so a year ago. A further 44% of this year’s respondents say reducing sickness absence is a priority, while 41% are focused on preventing future health issues for staff.

Following on from these findings, next month we will publish exclusive research into group risk benefits, which will cover the impact of government initiatives on this area, as well as delving deeper into employers’ rehabilitation strategies. As always, we have carried out a prize draw among our respondents. This time, Jacqueline Richmond, global compensation and benefits manager at Expro Group, is the lucky winner of £100-worth of Marks and Spencer vouchers.